Improvement in coffin-lids



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES S. MERRILL, OF POLAND, ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF AND GEORGE W. HORNER, OE MINOT, MAINE.

IMPROVEMENT IN COFFlN-LIDS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 38,713, dated May 26,1865.

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J AMES S. MERRILL, a citizen of the United States of America, and aresident of Poland, in the county of Androscoggin and State of Maine, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Cofns or BurialCases; and I do hereby declare the same t0 be fully described in the following specification, and represented in the accompanying drawings, of Which- Figure l is a top View of a coffin-cover with the lid in a closed position, the said cover and lid being furnished with my invention. Fig. 2 is a top view of them as they appear When the lid is open or turned Ioack upon the cover.

yThe purpose of my invention is to exhibit the name-plate or the-inscription on the cover, whether the cover be either closed or open; and it consists of acoftin cover and lid, as made with. an inscription-plate projection and a corresponding recess, arranged with respect to the inscription-plate or inscription, the cover and lid, and the hinges-thereof, substantially as hereinafter described, and as represented in the accompanying' drawings.

Generally speaking, the name or inscription plate of a coffinvcover is so placed thereon as to be visible only when the lid is closed, or when the lid is open or thrown back (it being supposed to be hinged to the cover) it so completely covers over the plate as to render it difficult, if not impossible, for a person to read the inscription thereon. With my invention the plate is always exposed to view, whether the lid be either open or closed.

In these drawings, A exhibits a coftin cover, B being the lid thereof, while D D are the hinges by which they are connected. The cover, instead of being made with a straight head or upper end, is 4formed with a projection, a, to enter a corresponding recess, b, made in the lid B. The inscription or inscrip- .tion-plate c is to be placed, either in part or in whole, on the projection c. The longer ax's of the inscription c is exhibited in the drawings as arranged in line with the joints ofthe two hinges.

Under the above circumstances, the inscription-plate or the inscription Will be in plain sight, Whether the lid be either Wholly open 0r entirely closed.

I claim- A coffin cover and lid, as made with -an inscription-plate projection, c, and a correspond ing recess, b, arranged with reference to the inscription or its plate c, the cover A, the lid B, and the hinges D D thereof, substantially in manner and for the purpose as hereinbefore described.

JAMES S. MERRILL.

Witnesses:

SARAH J. HATHAWAY, GEO. W. HORNER. 

